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BULLETIN OE THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
THE SHAD. 
HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 
The shad (Clupea sapidissima) was first introduced into the waters of the Pacific 
Coast m 1871. The feat of transporting the fry across the continent was at the time 
considered so remarkable and has had such a prominent influence on fish transporta- 
tion that the original accounts of the experiment, as contained in the reports of the 
California fish commission for 1870-71 and the New York fish commission for 1871, 
may with propriety be quoted at some length. The possibility and the desirability 
of introducing the fish into the rivers of the west coast appear to have been first 
suggested by the California fish commission, as may be seen from the following 
extract from their report : 
Your commissioners made arrangements with Mr. Seth Green, the noted pisciculturist of Roch- 
ester, N. Y., for the importation of a lot of young shad to be turned into the Sacramento River. 
No shad proper (Alosa prcestabilis) are found in the rivers of the Pacific Coast, while there are found 
several varieties of the same family, such as herring, anchovies, and sardines. As shad readily enter 
rivers while muddy from the spring freshets, and spawn in waters of a temperature as high as 65°, 
there was reason to hope that if the shad could be brought here alive and turned into the river they 
would find suitable food, and in time go to the ocean and return to propagate their species. As the 
shad is very prolific, each full-grown female yielding from 50,000 to 80,000 eggs, and as the flesh is 
esteemed to be nutritious and valuable food, it was deemed proper to make the first experiment of 
importing new varieties with the young of this fish. The eggs of the shad are hatched in from two 
to four days after they are spawned; therefore, if there were no other reason, time alone would 
prevent the importation of the eggs. 
Mr. Green felt so much doubt as to the possibility of transporting the young fish for so great a 
distance that he determined to superintend the experiment in person. He left Rochester, N. Y., with 
an assistant, on the 20th of June, with 15,000 of the young fish just hatched, contained in eight tiu cans 
holding about 12 gallons of water each. The water had to be changed at every convenient oppor- 
tunity, as on a part of the journey the weather was quite warm* Constant attention had to be given 
to prevent the water in the cans from reaching a higher temperature than 80°. At Chicago he lost a 
few fish from a film of oil from the machinery of the waterworks with which the water attempted to 
be used was covered. At Omaha the river water killed a few. The cause of this he had not time to 
investigate. The water of Bear River (discharging into Salt Lake) and the waters of the Humboldt 
and Truckee rivers were found to agree with them and contained plenty of food. 
Mr. Green arrived on the 27th of June. As it was advisable to put the young fish in the river at 
as high a point as practicable, for the reason that the instinct of the shad is, like that of the salmon, 
to return to spawn at the same place where it was hatched, they were the same day transferred to the 
cars of the California and Oregon Railroad and taken to the Sacramento River at Tehama. Here the 
temperature of the water was found to be 60° F. Upon dipping up the river water in a glass and 
pouring a lot of the young fish into it they were found to be lively and the water to contain large 
quantities of some minute substance on which they fed. All the conditions being favorable, they 
were turned loose in their new home. 
It is expected they will remain in this river until about January, by which time they will be 3 
or 4 inches long. They will then go to the ocean to return the next year weighing from a pound to a 
pound and a half, ready to commence the increase of their kind. Thus far the experiment has been a 
success. The water of the river is adapted to them. It contains the proper kind of food for their 
young, and the waters of our coast are filled with the sand Ilea, a small species of the shrimp, on 
which the fish feed after reaching the salt water. The only thing to be feared is that there may be 
in the ocean some kind of a fish which may so completely exterminate them that none will be left to 
come back and spawn. If, after one or two years, even one shad is taken in the river the result will be 
satisfactory, as it will demonstrate the fact that all the conditions are favorable to their successful 
